[IMC-US] ***APPROVED*** IMC-US -- moving forward!!!

[Sascha Meinrath]

Hi Mike & everyone,

I've added these concerns to our wiki:

http://brainstorm.ucimc.org/ucimcWiki/imc-us

There have been many important concerns raised that the IMC-US group will
be working to address as we get the website up and running.  I believe
that IMC-US is now officially inducted into the IMC Network.  The US-IMC
affinity group will now move forward with building the website and
programming the software.  Liaisons from all interested IMCs are invited
to be a part of the collaboration.

In solidarity,

--Sascha Meinrath
Urbana-Champaign IMC

On Wed, 1 Oct 2003, Mike R wrote:

> The Independent Media Center of Philadelphia does not place a formal
> block on the entry of IMC-US, but expresses concern and makes the following
> suggestions:
>
> - That the founding documents, mission statement, and the official text
> of the site itself be translated at least into Spanish, and that the site
> provide readers with the technical ability to post in the different
> languages spoken within the US, and to view posts sorted by language.
> That there be a regular interface between IMC-US and the translation
> listserves and collectives an international translation tools already
> available within Indymedia, in order to make this linguistic diversity
> real.  That participants in internal discussion make an effort to keep the
> mailing list bilingual, and that the coordinators conduct real outreach to
> include non-english-speaking participation, and that this be reflected in
> the outreach statement of the founding documents.
>
> - That the phrase in the outreach statement, "Additionally, the outreach
> group would contact other independent media organizations (especially
> those in areas where there are no IMCs) to spread the word about the
> US-IMC website" be changed to "Additionally, the outreach group would
> contact other independent media organization (especially those in areas
> where there are no IMCs) to encourage mutual aid and support,
> collaboration, and to invite input and support to the US-IMC website," so
> that the process is more reciprocal.
>
> - That the IMC US internal discussion include direct participation from all
> the US-based and US-territory-based IMCs whose news they syndicate.
>
> - That there be a clearer explanation of the process of human involvement in
> decision-making within IMC US.  If it is not to be a purely automatic
> syndication site, then the process of feature-writing and sorting of
> features should be made more clear and should include direct participation
> from representatives of all of the sites syndicated, with provisions for
> broad democratic participation, for example by providing for periodic
> face-to-face meetings based regionally.
>
> - That the IMC-US list be made more accessible to broad participation of
> Indymedia volunteers by linking to the IMC-US internal list from the site
> http://lists.indymedia.org, placing founding documents on Wiki pages at
> http://docs.indymedia.org, and encouraging broader participation in
> the list.
>
> - That the site layout be changed so that the syndication newswire header
> reads, "collected features from participating Indymedia Centers within the
> US," rather than just, "Collected from the IMC Network".
>
> - That wherever the official site text and documents make reference to
> "America" "American" or "Americans," these be changed to "United States"
> and "US and US-territory residents."
>
> - That the newswire have an open publishing feature as well as a syndication
> feature, using for example the same format as the global site, to
> encourage democratic participation in the news-making process.
>
> - That inasmuch as the site layout and feature selection are influenced by
> human decision-making, the coordinators emphasize cross-border
> collaboration, such as projects of the Northeast North America grouping,
> border camps, the current realities of the impact of US policy on the
> rest of the world and especially Latin America, and other trans-border
> issues.
>
> - IMC Philly is already actively involved in regional organizing such as
> NENA and regional and national independent media collaboration on issues
> such as radio broadcasting and media ownership.  We will maintain
> contact with IMC-US to help encourage broader and more democratic participation
> and diversity.  At least one of our volunteers, SuZQ, will stay
> involved with IMC-US process and will volunteer translation assistance.
>
>
> -Mike R
> Philly IMC
>
>
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